Downingtown OKs redistricting plans

EAST CALN — The Downingtown Area School Board voted on formal redistricting plans for both primary and secondary during its meeting on Wednesday.

In a 6-2 vote, with board members Thomas Ost-Prisco and Suzanne Simonelli dissenting, the school board accepted the plans recommended by the majority of the Redistricting Steering Committee.

The board also voted, 5-4, to accept both recommendations as one plan, instead of splitting it into two separate proposals, with board members Ost-Prisco, Simonelli, Barbara Hurt-Simmons and Jacqueline Fenn dissenting. Had the recommendations been split, then the board would have voted on redistricting primary and secondary plans separate from one another.

Through a vote, the redistricting steering committee approved the recommended plans, unanimously approving the elementary proposal, and approving the secondary recommendation, 16-5.

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The elementary schools will be redistricted as follows:

• Redistricting will be effective at the beginning of the 2014-15 school year, with one neighborhood exception.

• A grandfather clause option for any redistricted student beginning the fifth grade in the 2014-15 school year is also being recommended. Any redistricted student who will begin the fifth grade in the 2014-15 school year will have the option of moving to their new school, or finishing up their last elementary school year in the school to which they were previously assigned. District transportation will not be provided to any child electing to stay at their former school. Parents must agree to provide transportation to and from the former school for this option to be selected.

• The committee is not recommending any early transitioning into the newly assigned schools. This means that in the 2013-14 school year, kindergarten students will begin school in their currently assigned school and will shift to their new elementary school in 2014-15 to begin the first grade.

• The only neighborhood change the committee approved during the elementary discussion at its latest meeting was to move students from the Highlands and Colonial Woods neighborhoods located in West Bradford Township. The new recommendation is to move these neighborhoods from West Bradford to Bradford Heights Elementary School.

• All other committee recommendations that were presented in the March 7, 2013 webinar will be submitted to the school board for consideration.

Middle and high schools will be redistricted as follows:

• Rebalancing will begin in the 2015-16 school year. The Redistricting Steering Committee voted 16-5 that students living in the Williamsburg and Norwood House neighborhoods will be moved from Downingtown High School East to Downingtown High School West.

• The committee recommended giving students living in the redistricted neighborhoods of Williamsburg and Norwood House, who are in eighth through 12th grade at the start of the 2015-16 school year, the option of moving into their new secondary school at Downingtown West, or graduating from their currently assigned high school, Downingtown East. Students who will be in seventh grade as of 2015 and reside in Williamsburg and Norwood House would attend Downingtown Middle School at the beginning of the 2015-16 school year.

Parents had previously voiced their concerns over the committee’s proposals during public input meetings held throughout March. Their primary issue with the proposals was that some students would be making multiple moves throughout a few years, and that such transitions could be difficult or pose a negative impact on developing children.

“I just don’t think there’s a need right now for the secondary (schools to be redistricted),” said Taylor Young, a resident of Uwchlan Township with three children attending district schools.

Another group of parents had raised concerns about the secondary redistricting patterns, with regard to the high schools. The parents are specifically concerned about the movement of students living in the Williamsburg and Norwood House developments from Downingtown High School East to Downingtown West. The parents within the communities are currently petitioning against the proposal, which would not go into effect until the 2015-16 school year.

Due to the fact that the high schools’ rebalancing would not go into effect for two years, some parents, including school board member Suzanne Simonelli, who was also on the committee, asked the board to consider waiting on making a decision at this time.

But other parents, such as Theresa Wise of East Caln, were supportive of the recommendations prior to the board’s vote, stating that the plan was the best one for the majority of the district.

“I think there’s a lot of emotion around this,” Wise said. “Somebody’s going to be upset, (but) let’s move on and transition our kids the way we need to.”